Have you ever walked past the breakroom or water cooler while at work and noticed a small group of employees speaking in low, hushed tones?

There’s a good chance these folks might be engaging in workplace gossip.

Gossip doesn’t just take place in the office – for example, traveling salespeople who rarely see other company employees often depend on any tidbit of the story they can pick up via phone, email, or the occasional personal contact to maintain a connection to what’s happening within the organization.

While gossip may appear harmless, it can be pretty destructive, especially for the person who serves as its unwitting target. When you consider that, according to one study, gossip is up to 2.7 times more likely to be harmful than positive, it’s easy to see how damaging it can be. And negative chatter tends to spread quickly and can infiltrate the entire organization.

How to Identify Gossip When You Hear It

So, how can you tell if that muffled conversation from the other side of the cubicle wall is potentially dangerous gossip and not just some harmless chitchat? Gossip exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:

• The conversationalists seem to be taking pleasure in a misfortune suffered by another employee
• The conversation is taking on a negative tone or appears to be perpetuating conflict
• You would be uncomfortable telling what you’ve heard to the person being discussed by the individuals
• You’re hearing unsubstantiated rumors about an employee’s job status

What Are the Harmful Effects of Gossip?

As gossip spreads, which it inevitably does, it can have numerous detrimental effects on the workplace culture, including:

• Erosion of trust: Trust is essential to creating a positive, productive work environment. Negative gossip erodes trust. Those who engage in the practice will likely wonder if the group members gossip about them behind their backs. And it’s expected that the person who is its target will find out about it and will probably never be able to trust their colleagues again.
• Low morale: Excessive gossiping creates a backstabbing environment that can become an unbearable workplace. Low morale leads to higher turnover rates, putting the organization at a competitive disadvantage.
• Hindering teamwork: Gossip can be detrimental in work situations that require collaboration. When workers discover they are the target of gossip, they are less inclined to want to cooperate with their colleagues who perpetuate the negative talk. This typically creates a toxic work environment where employees are more concerned about the disruptive actions of their coworkers than getting the job done.
• Litigation: When gossip turns malicious, the individual on the receiving end may view it as harassment. Suppose they seek a remedy by reporting it to a supervisor or via the organization’s reporting hotline and do not obtain satisfactory results. In that case, the next step might be to pursue legal action. A lawsuit that becomes public can become a reputational nightmare for the organization.
• Disciplinary action: Gossip doesn’t always involve personal attacks against others; it can also entail disclosing sensitive or proprietary information to individuals who should not have access to it, especially competitors. This can result in violating a company policy, which may lead to disciplinary action, including termination.